A clean household is a healthy household. We know this from childhood by constantly being taught by our parents, teachers and the makers of disinfectant commercials. It has been a habitual and ritualistic chore for everyone to clean her house. It is all the more necessary during the outbreak of the deadly Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which WHO has declared as a pandemic. As every nation is coming forward to create a safe environment for its citizens, we also can take some small initiatives to do the same. I mean, rules and restrictions can only put us into our home, but it is us who are responsible for the sanctity of the inside areas of a house.
Apart from emptying the trashcan regularly, there is much that you can do to prevent contamination of Coronavirus. General cleanliness is all right, but in the time of Corona’s panic, you must care for some particular rules for cleaning your house. Remember, if the health code of your house is violated, you can do very little to prevent this terrible contamination. Let’s see the must-do things to create healthy surroundings at your happy home.
Use disinfectant:
You may have thought dusting is enough for your bedroom and drawing room, but now it isn’t. Experts recommend us to use disinfectant to do the regular cleaning. Keep in mind, the disinfectant that you will be using should have high efficacy. Look for the label on the bottle. If it says ‘kills 99.9% germs’, it will do. In the case of selecting your disinfectant, be careful about the expiry date on the bottle. It might say ‘best before’, but the effectiveness of the disinfectant is reduced. And you would not take the risk now, would you?
Use wipes or paper towel:
It is best to clean your house using a paper towel or wipes. Using mop is also useful but the wipe or paper towel is better because you can dump those after a single-use. During this dangerous time of viral infection, a single mop should not be used again and again. This way, there remain chances of infection and contamination. So experts suggest that you should spray the disinfectant on the wipes to soak them before use. Use different wipes or paper towels for different places. For instance, you would not want to clean your kitchen with the same wipe or tower that you have been using for cleaning your bathroom.
Clean the high-traffic areas of the house:
Before going into an elaboration of this point, you must know what a high-traffic area is in a house. Well, a high-traffic area is an area that is touched, used and accessed by people most of the time. The number of people touching the area and the number of events on which the area is touched is both high. So, the area is termed as a high-traffic area. (Thenewspocket.com) In a house, the usual high-traffic areas are doorknobs, the railing of the stairs, basin, head of the chair, T.V. remotes, microwave doors, refrigerator doors, drawer pulls, cooktops, the armrest of the sofa, toilet flush, railing on the balcony and many more. You need to clean these places once a day with proper disinfectants.
Using gloves:
Using gloves is a smart choice of course. You would like to avoid any physical contact with any kind of foul object. Even during the cleaning job, it is safer that you use a pair of good waterproof gloves. After washing and cleaning, you have to wash the gloves as well. Unless it is a use-and-throw pair, you might want to use it afterward. So washing them properly is a very necessary post-cleaning work. After washing, dry those in sunlight. Well, irrespective of using gloves, you should always wash your hands after cleaning.
If you go out frequently:
Though the government of every country has prohibited the citizens from joining any social gatherings and we are avoiding stepping outside of our houses, sometimes you have to go out. Now, if you or any of your family goes out and returns, things should be treated with extra caution. A person should wash his hands, feet, and face with soap or hand sanitizer. Moreover, his clothes should be washed immediately. If you take a bag with you, try to clean that too.
Cleaning your devices:
Whereas desktops can stay at home, cell phones and laptops cannot. You have to carry those with you all over the day. They need to be cleaned as well. And the process is extremely easy. You just need a piece of microfiber cloth and soap. At first, remove the cover of the phone. Damp the microfiber cloth with soap and water and clean the front and the back of the phone. Be careful, no water drop goes into the device. Do the same with your laptop or any other device that might need cleaning. Clean the devices that you take to office (or school, college, library anywhere) after every time you get home.
If you do not have disinfectant:
Recently, there has been a scarcity of disinfectants in the market due to the rising risk of Coronavirus. Don’t worry, if you do not have a disinfectant. Simple soap and water will do the same work. But when you are outside of your home, try to carry an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Regularity:
Regularity is an important thing to maintain in the case of Corona prevention. You cannot clean your house on a Sunday and wait for the next Sunday to come for taking up the cleaning job. You have to be thorough with your cleaning chores. Clean the high-traffic areas at least twice a day.
This is an alarming situation for everyone on earth. This is a battle between a deadly virus and the humankind. We all have to take small steps to eradicate the danger. If we can do our part by systematically cleaning our house, we should. Compared to the extraordinary effort on the part of our nation’s doctors, this is a little thing we can do to prevent a national breakdown.
So, stay clean, stay safe!
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